Occupied Minds: A Journey Through the Israeli Psyche

by Arthur Neslen

Israel's founders sought to create a nation of new Jews who would never again go meekly to the death camps. Yet Israel's strength has become synonymous with an oppression of the Palestinians that provokes anger throughout the Muslim world and beyond. How are Israelis able to see themselves as victims while victimizing others? What does Israeli Jewish identity mean today?

Arthur Neslen explores the dynamics, distortions and incredible diversity of Israeli society. From the mouths of soldiers, settlers, sex workers and the victims of suicide attacks, Occupied Minds is the story of a national psyche that has become scarred by mental security barriers, emotional checkpoints and displaced outposts of self-righteousness and aggression.

From vignettes to in-depth interviews, more than fifty Israelis offer their accounts. What they reveal is in turn powerful, haunting, subtle and disturbing. Illustrated throughout with photographs, this unique book offers an unrivalled insight into Israeli consciousness, private and public.

It charts the evolution of a communal self-image based on cultural and religious values towards one formed around a single militaristic national security.

Genres: Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published February 22, 2006

Reviews

[eli]

essential read. thank you new yorck bethanien free library. got this after a viewing of tantura

[Rob]

A complex and fascinating portrait of the smashed-mirror Israeli psyche. It helps enormously to understand the different histories and viewpoints but also makes one wonder how they can ever possibly be reconciled.

[Abdulrahman Murad]

Accounts of cross-sector Israeli settlers on their fears and beliefs. It brought me closer to what manifest their self-identity including affiliation with the army, hebrew language, a legacy of suffering, etc